So­phie has home to call her own

Ken­tish Ex­press story prompts of­fer of new home to mum and her sick daugh­ter

A MOTHER and her sick daugh­ter’s weeks of hav­ing to live in hospi­tal are over.

Last week we high­lighted the plight of sin­gle par­ent Ge­orgina Farmer, 33, who had been sleep­ing at the bed­side of her three-year-old daugh­ter So­phie at the William Har­vey hospi­tal for nine weeks.

Suf­fer­ing from a rare lung con­di­tion, So­phie has been re­ceiv­ing treat­ment since Christ­mas that now re­quires her con­stantly us­ing oxy­gen.

Al­though con­sul­tants gave the go-ahead for So­phie to leave the hospi­tal for a suit­able home where she could be cared for by her mother and com­mu­nity nurses, Ash­ford Bor­ough Coun­cil was un­able to help, leav­ing them ma­rooned in the chil­dren’s ward.

Touched

Last week we pub­lished Miss Farmer’s ap­peal for help, which im­me­di­ately came up trumps.

Prop­erty mil­lion­aire Fer­gus Wil­son, who owns hun­dreds of homes for rent in the town, spot­ted the story on his weekly visit to Ash­ford and im­me­di­ately in­structed his agents to sort out a home for So­phie and her mum.

He said: “I used to be a teacher in Maid­stone and worked with chil­dren with lung con­di­tions.

“I was touched by the story of their plight and they will get a nice house to live in com­fort where I hope they will be very happy and be able to get on with the chal­lenges they face in their lives.”

Within the day Miss Farmer was of­fered a se­lec­tion of prop­er­ties and agreed on a ter­raced two-bed­roomed prop­erty at Park Farm, Kingsnorth, and started mov­ing her be­long­ings in at the week­end.

Un­for­tu­nately, So­phie couldn’t im­me­di­ately join her as she has suf­fered a med­i­cal set­back.

It was not the only of­fer made to Miss Farmer.

Si­mon Hold­stock of­fered a self-con­tained ground-floor apart­ment at his home in Duck­worth Close, Willes­bor­ough, and the coun­cil said they would have a home avail­able for her in three weeks.

Thank­ing the Ken­tish Ex­press this week Miss Farmer, said: “It was fan­tas­tic and I am thrilled to pieces that Mr Wil­son, who I have never met, just al­lowed me to move in and is gen­er­ously pay­ing all the nor­mal fees and de­posits to the agents him­self.

“The coun­cil of­fered me a flat but it was not suit­able as it had no gar­den.

“Sadly So­phie picked up an­other cold over the week­end and will not be fit enough to come with me to our new home un­til later in the week.”